On Translation Browsing a Copenhagen airport bookstore, a translator picks up a book. The journey between that impulse and his eventual translation of the memoir into English was both emotional and serendipitous. In the summer of 2016 I was passing through Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen with my wife, on our way home after a visit with family. We stopped to browse the bookstore, and I noticed a reprint of a book by Danish author Tove Ditlevsen called Gift, which had first been published in 1971. I hadn’t read much of her work, but I knew she was a big name, so I bought it, even though the cover was strange, a psychedelic skull on a gray background. It did not take more than a couple of sittings to devour this memoir of Tove Ditlevsen’s life from the ages of about twenty-three to thirty-five. It chronicles her rise as a best-selling author, while she also had four failed marriages, two back-alley abortions, and a five-year near-fatal addiction to the opioid Demerol. I distinctly remember laying the book down after the final page and thinking to myself, I think this is a masterpiece. This was an intuitive judgment, not a conclusion I had come to after analyzing the text. But looking back now, I think what caused me to deem this work a masterpiece is the combination of Ditlevsen’s writing style, which is concise, honest, and ironic, combined with the content of her story, which through her many troubling experiences pulls back the... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-04-06 13:12:22 UTC ]
Don Winslow sells a trilogy to William Morrow for seven figures, Dey Street buys a memoir from Moon Unit Zappa, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-12-11 05:00:00 UTC ]
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For a while, Melania Trump has teased that she might write a book after the Trump family exits the White House. I, like many, had mixed feelings. On one hand, it’d be interesting to see the Trump administration from the point of the view of the famously sullen First Lady; but on the other hand,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-10 18:18:04 UTC ]
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“I personally know the author of this story you’re reading.” Oh look, a new story by Rachel Kushner. | Lit Hub Fiction Finding your craft: Wright Thompson on bourbon, books, and writing your way out of small-town America. | Lit Hub Memoir “He ripped his shirt open, revealing the bloody tooth,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-09 11:30:37 UTC ]
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Seven Dials has acquired Dame Elizabeth Anionwu’s memoir Dreams From My Mother, a trailblazing nurse's story of how she overcame a background of shame, stigma and discrimination to dedicate her to life to fighting inequality. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-09 10:06:03 UTC ]
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Bonnier Books UK will publish The Right Sort of Girl, a "deeply personal" coming-of-age memoir from broadcaster Anita Rani. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-08 17:30:55 UTC ]
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Take a look at previous What We’re Reading blogs for more reading inspiration.Don’t Worry, Little Crab by Chris HaughtonAll Chris Haughton’s delightful picture books for young children open with a quotation, which the story then evinces. His latest, surprisingly, quotes Anaïs Nin: ‘Life shrinks... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2020-12-08 12:08:02 UTC ]
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Sinéad O’Connor's long-awaited and “revelatory” memoir Rememberings will be released by Penguin General imprint Sandycove in June 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-08 08:41:00 UTC ]
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THE BASIC POLITICAL BACKDROP of Alex Niven’s New Model Island is that Britain is potentially only halfway through a 20-year period of Conservative governance, and that the union may lose several members before power changes hands at Westminster. But the book, a peculiar volume of polemic and... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-12-07 16:00:40 UTC ]
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Grigory Rodchenkov has won this year's William Hill Sports Book of the Year award for his memoir The Rodchenkov Affair: How I Brought Down Putin’s Secret Doping Empire (W H Allen). Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-03 21:02:42 UTC ]
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“I have never in my life met anyone with such an acute lexical feel for the specific word needed, for the hidden rhythm of a prose sentence.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on his beloved wife Aliya. | Lit Hub Memoir “I am no longer acquainted with the people who made drug ingestion easy, or free, or... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-03 11:30:56 UTC ]
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Doreen Cunningham has won £10,000 for her memoir Soundings: A Journey with Whales at this year's Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-03 05:13:41 UTC ]
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Booksellers reported a significant drop in customer traffic and a commensurate drop in sales, but online orders were way up, forcing bookstores to adapt. Barack Obama's memoir and Jeff Kinney's latest were the most popular titles over the Thanksgiving weekend at stores surveyed by 'PW.' Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-12-03 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey’s Memorial Drive—a harrowing memoir of a daughter reckoning with the brutal murder of her mother at the hands of her stepfather—has been optioned by Sony Pictures Television for development as a drama series. Recently heralded by the Washington Post... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-12-02 20:31:46 UTC ]
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Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding will publish her memoir with Ebury Press in spring 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-02 19:07:37 UTC ]
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JASON HARDY DOESN’T PRETEND to know the solution to America’s criminal justice problem. There are a little more than two pages of policy proposals buried in the epilogue of The Second Chance Club: Hardship and Hope After Prison, Hardy’s memoir about his time as a probation and parole officer in... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-12-02 16:00:48 UTC ]
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Weidenfeld & Nicolson will publish Forever Young, a memoir from Oscar-winning actress Hayley Mills about her early years. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-02 06:29:05 UTC ]
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“The Babur Nama” is the autobiography of the polymathic founder of the Mughal dynasty. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-11-30 19:59:24 UTC ]
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Hodder Studio will publish Ellie Taylor's memoir My Child and Other Mistakes: How to Ruin your Life in the Best Way Possible next summer. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-29 12:35:38 UTC ]
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Nikesh Shukla is launching his first podcast series “Brown Baby” in January 2021 in partnership with Acast, ahead of his forthcoming memoir of the same name. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-29 12:07:08 UTC ]
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Ten days ago, with the coronavirus and the election continuing to dominate the media-industry conversation in the US, Ben Smith, media columnist at the New York Times, briefly steered attention overseas, publishing an interview with the French leader Emmanuel Macron under the bait-and-switch... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-11-25 13:32:28 UTC ]
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